Staying on Track

The Power of Compound Habits - and Sticking With Them…

I’ve been keeping up a pretty rigorous and punctilious morning routine for the past few months. After spending years dealing with a pretty persistent anxiety and always leaping between one strategy and the next - I decided a bit of repetition could be what I really needed.

As I spoke about in my previous post, Physical Activity, mental illness is rife all over the world right now. It may not seem completely relevant, but here are some statistics that have inextricable connection to the increase in mental illness - at least in Australia.

• People are globally drinking more, with a study by WHO (World Health Organization) outlining the 70% increase in alcohol use from 1990-2017 and an estimated continuation of the same trend.

• Illicit drug use is also on a gradual rise in those aged 14 and over; 15.6% in 2016 and 16.4% in 2019 (AIHW, 2022).

• Considering my own experience with the startling number of people between 14 and 18 adopting habitual e-cigarette (vape) smoking - the estimated increase in e-cigarette use in 18-24 year olds from 19.1% in 2016 to 26% in 2019, (AIHW, 2022) is baffling on its own.

---

Comprehensively, by 2017-2018, 20% or 4.8 million Australians reported suffering from mental illness - an increase from 18% in 2014, (ABS, 2018).

---

Now to get back to the point, people are using external sources of “pleasure” to compensate for their increase in mental illness. By nobody’s words except my own, this is the dopamine pandemic.

Between the accessibility of semi-entertaining media content, the conveniency of junk food at your school canteen, that quick hit of caffeine at your local coffee-shop or the Australian stigma towards pursuing any feat too risky or outside of the norm - we as a society are plagued by a lack of both ambition and any motivation to better ourselves for our future.

To an extent, I believe “self-improvement” has been stigmatised itself. Most people, especially those 12-18 years old, genuinely think that any attempt at self-improvement such as studying more, being more expressive, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, starting a business or even investing - is either questionable or completely laughable.

---

This is why the use of associative habits and the persistence of something like a simple 30 minute morning routine (besides just getting dressed and eating breakfast), has completely changed my life - not only by improving my motivation and enhancing my cognitive ability, but instilling a previously minimal ability to view my experiences more positively and enjoying the simple things more thoroughly.

If anyone took the time to read through this hopefully somewhat engaging article - you should take one thing away…

Whenever you make a decision to pick up a bottle of liquor, ingest drugs (can be literally anything), order takeaway again, waste more money or choose to sit and watch a movie instead of research something you’re passionate about - you are reinforcing a little voice in your head that says “this is my normal”.

Feel free to comment your thoughts, feelings and instincts below!

Riley C.

References

“Illicit drug use.” Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/illicit-drug-use. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Cohut, Maria, and Gianna D'Emilio. “Global alcohol intake has increased by 70%, study warns.” Medical News Today, 9 May 2019, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325135#Steep-increase-in-alcohol-consumption. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia, Younger people.” Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alcohol/alcohol-tobacco-other-drugs-australia/contents/priority-populations/younger-people. Accessed 2 June 2022.

“Mental health.” Australian Bureau of Statistics, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health. Accessed 2 June 2022.